At Least Someone Cares
by TheMortition
Summary: The ghost of a murdered boy wanders around looking for his killer. He ends up in the middle of Cyrus' cruel plan for the ghosts. What happens when a certain ghost catches his eyes. Maybe even more? JackalXOC two-shot!
1. Restless Spirits

Another sunset, another night about to arise, another day filled with sadness. Sadness because I can't go back home. Depression from not being able to find the murderer. So much sadness because I'm dead.

My name is Sage. I was 17-years-old when I was killed. When I was killed, I became a ghost and had no idea who killed me. All I remember was going to school, cutting through an alleyway, being attacked from behind, and being stabbed until I died. I wasn't able to get a good look at the guy's face.

Now, I roam all of America to see if I can find out who killed me. Everywhere I've been, I've gotten little tiny clues of who my murderer is. However, none of this is enough for me to know exactly who they are.

I'm really thankful no one but psychics can see me. I'm a pretty gruesome sight. My short black hair is all messy and has blood in it, my blue eyes that use to be bright are now dark and dull with dark rings around them, my black T-shirt and pants are ripped up from the attack, my body is covered in multiple stab wounds, and my white skin is covered in blood. I know if someone saw me they'd run away. I've seen it many times.

It's been 50 years since the day I was murdered. It hurts me deeply to think I'll never find him. I have no idea how I'll rest peacefully without knowing my murderer's face. I've encountered many spirits and a lot of them seemed fine that they were ghosts. I don't understand how anyone would be okay being this kind of afterlife.

Tonight, I find myself wandering in an old abandoned junk yard. If I were still alive, I'd be scared as hell. You don't know what could be lurking around the corners of this place. All I've found so far were rats and bats trapped under car hoods. I use to be afraid of these creatures because I was worried about contracting diseases or rabies. I'm not saying because I'm dead I have no fear, it's because I'm overcome with sadness that fear slips my mind.

I wander around a little more before finding a man sneaking around behind the piles of cars. But, as I came closer, I noticed he was a ghost. He looked like he went through a rough death. He was covered in bullet holes and blood. Wonder what happened to him to get so many bullets lodged inside him.

"Hey, mister," I say in a monotonous voice. He looks up at me and sees my bloody form.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asks rather annoyed.

"If I'm in your way, I'm nobody important. I was just coming through."

"When an adult asks you a question, you should be polite and answer it." I sighed. I could go through the arguement with him that I'm at least 57-years-old, but we can't all judge by appearences. Plus, he'd persist with the question and I'd have no choice but to answer. I told him my name, explian to him that I was murdered 50 years ago, and tell him I've been looking for my murderer in order to pass into the next life.

"Well, that's touching and all, but I've got some news for you. If it's been 50 years already, there's a likely chance you won't find your murderer."

"How come?"

"Because the police most likely gave up on your case and put it away to collect dust." I look down at the ground in sadness. So all these years of searching was a waste of time? What am I going to do now? Go back to my empty house and hope someone comes along so I can scare them? Maybe even have someone finally see me so they can bless me and I can go to Heaven? Who knows how long that'll take?

"I guess I'll leave so I don't waste your time, sir." I turn to leave but hear a huge crash at the gate. A big truck comes through and a lot of people appear from behind the gate.

"What's going on?" I ask him.

"I don't know, but they're going to die."

"How do you know that?"

"Because, kid, I'm going to kill them. I was a murderer when I was alive." Well, that's comforting. I just opened up to a dead serial killer. He was right, though. He started killing them off as they ran in fear. I walked a little closer to get a better view of everything. For some reason, I found myself wanting to sit in the huge see through box thing they had suspended in the air. I had a great view there.

Suddenly, there was some weird noise coming from a sound system. It sounded like someone saying a bunch of jibberish to me. Out of nowhere, the guy ran into the glass thing with me while carrying someone. He crushed the guy to death and blood went all over the walls and the closing door. That's when he realized we were trapped. That's also when one of the people noticed I wasn't suppose to be here. Of course, there was nothing they could do because if they let me out they'd have to let this guy out. Therefore, I was trapped in a glass box with a pissed off, dead serial killer.

"So, since we're stuck in here for God knows how long, how about we try to pass the time," the guy says.

"How?"

"Well, I haven't properly introduced myself. My name use to be Horace Mehoney but now I call myself the Juggernaut."

"Why do you call yourself that?"

"It's a long story. I guess since we'll be in here for awhile, I'll explain." I then become aware of the 12 ghosts and their link to this Black Zodiac.

Sometime later

We all watch as the last few construction workers leave. We watched in annoyance and wonder as they built this strange place under a very weird house. We were put together like a puzzle and left to ourselves to do whatever. Of course, the Great Child, the Dire Mother, the Juggernaut, and I were an exception to that. The last few guys leave and we all go back to doing what we did before they came here: Chatting with one another.

"God, I thought they'd never leave!" the Pilgrimise shouted, hitting the edge of her stocks against the glass.

"Tell me about it!" the Torn Prince said while hitting his bat on the door, "I wish I could get out of here and bash their heads open!"

"You and me both, kid," the Hammer remarked. I noticed the Withered Lover was all to herself as she looked down in sadness.

"Withered Lover?" I ask, "What's wrong?"

"I wish they chose someone else for this. I don't want to be a ghost. I want to watch over my husband and kids." I heard her story when I got here. She sounded like she had a nice life. I wish she didn't have to suffer like this either. Through her burn scars of her previous life, she is a really beautiful woman. Her husband and kids must've been so lucky.

I hear a scratching on one of the boxes and look over in its direction. There, the Jackal, was trying to scratch his way out. I was amazed he could actually scratch at something like that and feel nothing. He did the same thing as a human but that itself is surprising. He noticed me staring and started smirking at me. I turned away feeling a little embarrassed for some reason.

This has been happening ever since we were put into this basement. We did a little small talk and introduced ourselves but I always found myself staring at him and turning away as he stared back. I don't know what that meant and I wanted to ask but I was too shy. I finally got around to asking.

"How do you know if someone likes you?" I didn't think anyone heard but almost all eyes were on me once I asked.

"Why do you want to know that exactly?" the Juggernaut asked.

"No reason. I just remembered something from when I was alive and felt curious to ask."

"Well, I wouldn't know. I'm not the right person to ask."

"It's when people give you that certain look," the Bounded Woman said.

"What's that look?" I asked.

"It's hard to explain but you just know."

"That's not it at all!" the Angry Princess remarked, "It's when they start talking to you. You realize afterwards whether or not they like you or not."

"Oh, like you'd know?" the Bounded Woman argued, "All these guys you _talked_ to ended up beating you!"

"Really now? I don't think you know either. You approached them first!" The two girls argued for a moment and I considered the fact that maybe I shouldn't have brought this up.

"I'll give you a guy's view on it," the Torn Prince suggested, "If they look at you and then shyly look away, that's when you know they like you."

"Back then, it was much more simple," the Hammer interrupted, "If they gave you a gift, it was plainly obvious."

"Hey Sage?" the First Born Son asked, "Was there someone you liked when you were alive?"

"Well, sort of."

"Who was it?"

"Was she pretty?" the Angry Princess asked, now finishing her arguement with the Bounded Woman.

"Well, that's the whole point. It wasn't a _she_." They all looked at me in either surprise or semi-shock.

"You... liked a... boy?" the Juggernaut asked.

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

"In your day?" the Torn Prince said, "Pretty much."

"Could that be why you were murdered?" the Pilgrimise asked.

"I was thinking that but I don't think anyone besides my parents and brother knew." Everyone was silent for a very long time, it was almost frightening.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you think one of your parents killed you?" the Dire Mother asked.

"No! They couldn't have! I mean, sure they were a little upset but not enough to hurt me or anything."

"What about your brother?" the Jackal asked. I was a little surprised he spoke, let alone suggested my brother of the horrible crime.

"He couldn't have! Why would you say that?"

"What was his reaction when you told him?" I thought about it for a few moments, remembering back to the night I told them.

"He had no reaction. He was just calm."

"Ah..." the Jackal said looking over at the other side of his wall.

"What? What does that mean?"

"He was hiding it, harboring his thoughts inside until he was able to find a way to release it."

"How do you know that?"

"I lived in a mental hospital. I picked up on a lot of things while I was in there." I thought back to the morning I was murdered while pacing. I was running late so I cut through an alleyway near the school. Suddenly, a masked man stabbed me from behind, causing me to fall to the ground. My neck was slit and I couldn't scream. I wouldn't die so he stabbed me over and over again. I was able to look up at him to find he had a ski mask on. I remembered as I was slipping away that his mask had a certain mark on it. A bleach stain. Mom accidentally got bleach on my brother's mask but he never threw it out.

"Oh my god, you're right," I whispered. Not only had I realized who my murderer was, I discovered that I was out of the box. I wasn't paying attention to my walking and ended up getting out somehow. How this happened, I have no idea.

"How did you do that?" the Bounded Woman exclaimed.

"I don't know. I guess it's because these things can only hold you in, not me."

"Well, you know what you have to do, right?" the Juggernaut asked.

"What?"

"In that room there is something keeping us all in. Figure out what it is so we can get out."

"O-Okay."


	2. Happy Afterlife

I walked up to the doors that concealed this room filled with complicated devices. I did my best to pull or do whatever to the things I found. I then came near these knobs with strange symbols on them. They looked like the ones on the doors of the other ghosts. I pulled the first one down and heard a door open up outside. When I turned around, the First Born Son came out with his hatchet. He smiled widely at me and said, "Thank you, Sage." He walked off upstairs and disappeared.

I pulled down all the other knobs and more doors opened up. One by one, all the ghosts were released with the Juggernaut being the last one out. We all went upstairs and outside the house to see that the wind blew slightly through the clear night this evening. It was quite beautiful dispite the weird glass house behind us.

"So, what's going to happen now?" I asked. The Angry Princess giggled and looked over at me.

"We're all going home. Wouldn't you if you were stuck in this place for a long time?"

"Well, that's kind of why I traveled around so much," I said slowly, "It's too sad for me to go back home. Especially after I figured out who killed me."

"I wish I could bring you with me, Sage," the Withered Lover said with a sympathetic tone, "But this is my time to go."

"I understand, Jean." She smiled as I gave a wry smile back to her. She then disappeared into a glow of beautiful, angelic light.

"How about you come with me?" the Jackal suggested, "It would be nice to have someone around the old asylum besides myself for once."

"I guess so. At least I'll have some kind of company."

"Well then, come on!" As the others dispersed around me and faded away, the Jackal and I went to the asylum he put himself in. It was torn down to ruins with dust, cobwebs, rats, and other little creatures everywhere. It must have once been very clean and maybe resembled a hospital at one time. I can almost imagine it now. A polished, white building with doctors, nurses, and janitors roaming the halls. Lunatics doing who-knows-what in their rooms filled my mind to no end.

"Well, welcome to my 'home.'"

"I thought you didn't like this place."

"I don't. Let me rephrase that: Welcome to my _home_." He made quote marks when saying the word 'home.'

"Ah, I see. So does this mean I get a grand tour?" I joked.

"Of course. You are my visitor after all." Ah, asylum joke.

I followed him through the huge building. There were so many halls and different corridors that one can get lost in this place, dead or alive. The rooms themselves were almost the same. A small room that consisted of a bed, an unopenable window, and a closet. The white padded rooms were on a different floor of the asylum. The bathrooms were like a lot of public restrooms with stalls, sinks, and big mirrors. The shower rooms are huge rooms with several shower heads on a wall and two knobs indicating what kind of water would come out.

"Sometimes, depending on your case, they'd come to your room and hose you down," Ryan told me, "I've been through that countless times." The very thought of going through that while alive made me cringe a little.

He showed me the offices and examination rooms that were further away from the bedrooms. Just like the rest of the building, the offices and examination rooms were burned and its previous owner's things scattered the floor, or were ruined in the fire. The dining room had tables turned over or pushed up against the wall. The use to be food in the kitchen had long been eaten away by animals or decayed. Then he brought me to the basement.

"What's down here?" I asked.

"I use to stay in a room but tore up the walls with my nails. They put me in a straight jacket to keep me from doing that but I chewed my way out of it. Then they placed this cage over my head and put me down here. This is where I stayed for the remainder of my life."

The basement was extremely dark and I couldn't see anything.

"What's down here, Ryan?"

"Nothing but my rotting corpse." I strained my eyes in the darkness to make out a burned up skeleton in a straight jacket with a cage over the skull. The straight jacket was still wrapped around the corpse and the cage didn't have a hole in it.

"I can't imagine staying down here so long like that."

"Tell me about it. It made me more insane than cured me."

"I was told that a lot of things doctors did back then to treat their patients hurt them a lot worse. I've seen that things have changed a lot today."

"Even if that may be, I don't think there's a cure for insanity."

"Probably not." I looked over at him and stared at him for awhile. He was looking at his corpse or thinking really hard, so he didn't notice my staring.

"Hey, Ryan?"

"Hmmmmm?" He looked down at me and stared back at me.

"Did you really bring me here because you were lonely?" He was quiet for a moment before answering.

"Sort of."

"What do you mean?" He took my hand and led me back up to the lobby, where we stood there staring at each other.

"I kind of like you, Sage?" I look up at him in surprise. If I were still alive, my heart would've skipped a beat.

"You mean as in you're attracted to me?"

"Yes."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm not laughing am I?" Not only that, he looked pretty serious.

"N-No. I just never thought someone would actually like me."

"Because you're gay and you're covered from head to toe in cuts and blood?"

"Yeah..."

"You're not that bad looking, Sage. I've seen worse."

"Well, you did live in a mental hospital so I wouldn't doubt that."

"This is a little off topic but do you still like that guy from when you were alive?" I look up at him in confusion for a moment before I remembered the conversation we had hours ago. I smiled and chuckled a little.

"Ryan, there was no boy from when I was alive. I just made that up."

"Why?"

"Because I like you back. I was too shy to say it back there." He stared at me for a few seconds before laughing maniacally.

"Now that's messed up!" he cackled. I joined in on his laughter until we slowly stopped. I looked up into his eyes and leaned up to him. He leaned down a little quicker than me and caught my lips. That's when I was able to tell that I was indeed into guys. This kiss between me and a guy felt right. It almost seemed like we could stay like this forever. I wish it could but we eventually broke away.

I smiled up at Ryan, the Jackal, and knew that this afterlife was going to be a lot better. I think I understand some of those ghosts now. I wouldn't mind spending another 50 years or more being a ghost. As long as I'm with him, I'm fine.


End file.
